Olmert Offers 'Large Territories' Based on 'Success' of Cease-Fire

Although Israel's political leaders are claiming a comprehensive cease-fire was signed with the Palestinians, Israeli security officials have claimed that a truce was only agreed to regarding rocket attacks. Of course, they point out that weapons smuggling and military armament are a given, and that Israel assumes that the enemy will be much better armed when the cease-fire is dropped in the future. Here are terror leaders saying they either do not recognize that cease-fire or plan to use the time to prepare for the next round through rearmament and training.

In any case, "volleys of rockets" have continued for two days, which initially caught Sderot residents by surprise:

We were all outside because we thought the firing had ended,? said Sderot resident Odelia Peretz. ?We thought the truce would hold. Children were panicking, there was hysteria

This has not stopped Olmert from making wild promises listing detailed concessions should the Palestinians endorse a similar commitment to refrain from terror in the future. Israel has, however, issued a security directive not to fire on the Palestinian rocket crews.

Khaled Abu Toameh points out that Abbas is responding with hackneyed Arafat boilerplate about how he would love to enforce the cease-fire if only he could get more Western funding and arms. Israel is clearly continuing its diabolical plan of getting the Palestinians to laugh themselves to death (in the words of Michael Freund).

Will Abbas Enforce a Cease-Fire? (Khaled Abu Toameh)

Abbas has control over at least 45,000 members of a dozen or so security forces in Gaza, some of whom were trained by American and European security experts. This is in addition to thousands of gunmen and activists belonging to his Fatah party. Hamas, by contrast, has less than 5,000 militiamen, who are not as effective as Abbas' policemen and security agents. Abbas appears to be comfortable with the image of the weak leader low on funds and resources. His message to the outside world is: If I only had more weapons, policemen, and money, I'd be able to move against the terrorists. This was the same excuse that Arafat used whenever he was asked why he was not doing anything to stop suicide bombings against Israel.

Millions of dollars continue to pour into Abbas' office almost on a weekly basis. The U.S. has also been arming and funding Abbas. Yet what the Palestinians need is not more rifles - which they never use to stop Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or other militias anyway - but good governance and credible leaders. The only way to bring about regime change in the Palestinian territories is by exerting pressure on Abbas to reform his Fatah party, which he will only do when he feels that he is under pressure from donors. He will also only start moving against the Kassam rocket squads and weapon-smuggling when someone bangs on the table and demands immediate action.

Interestingly, Olmert's speech is another IRIS 'Prediction Confirmed' from February when I immediately called a fraud Olmert's policy of cutting off Israeli payments to the Palestinian Authority because of the landslide election victory of Hamas. Instead, as excerpted below, the funds would merely be delayed and presented later ("He stressed that if the Palestinians responded, Israel would...release Palestinian tax revenues held in Israel since Hamas's victory in last January's elections.")

Hamas: "We'll Nuke You." Israel: "We'll Keep Paying You"

.... 2) Money for the Palestinian Authority is still being placed in escrow, meaning that the funds are being paid by Israel, not available to Israel in the future, and are legally intended for use by the Palestinian Authority. If a company pays money into a retirement fund for a worker for access at a future time, that is still considered an employee asset. There are many scenarios in which the Palestinians may access the funds. Here are some: "humanitarian" purposes, Israeli court order, international court order, American pressure and "carrots" for various insincere public expressions in English.

See also: What is Olmert Smoking and Where Can I Get Some?